Would you like to attend a class about irrigation topics from the comfort of your chair?

Now, you and your peers can attend not one but several webinar on water, irrigation and agriculture. Hosted by the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI). Crop health, agricultural water security and environmental footprint are three interconnected sustainability issues of national significance. This webinar series presents the latest research data that are crucial to address these complex issues. Specifically, this series will focus on irrigation pathogens and recycled water quality.

For those who have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before

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The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is leading a statewide effort to improve consistency in the Consumptive/Water Use Permitting Programs implemented by the Water Management Districts.

The DEP and the Water Management Districts have been reviewing the comments on the draft rules that were received in June 2013. They are making changes where appropriate and the Water Management Districts will be posting, on their websites, revised rules on or about August 1, 2013. For this reason public workshops will be given at several locations. In South Florida the upcoming workshop is in the office of the University of Florida/IFAS Cooperative Service Auditorium.

WHEN: August 19, 2013 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE: University of Florida Extension office. (Agricultural Center)

18710 SW 288 Street. Homestead, FL 33030

COST: Free

AGENDA:

Presentation Of Consumptive Use Permitting (CUP) Consistency

Overview

Summary of public comments (Your comments)

Update since May workshops

The completion of the CUPcon rulemaking will be done by the Water Management Districts and is expected to be completed during Fall 2013.

More information about this and other workshop locations please click here:

Consumptive Use Permitting Consistency comments:

If you can’t make it but still wish to comment; please write your comments to be submitted to Cupcon@dep.state.fl.us by September 6, 2013. Please note that emails sent to this address are received by the Department and automatically forwarded to the five Water Management Districts.

Water availability in Miami and other 224 urban areas in the United Sates

Water issues are becoming more and more important to all of us. Especially in bigger cities like Miami.

Jim Jawitz, a UF soil and water science professor, and Julie Padowski, who earned her doctoral degree from UF surveyed big cities and found that 47 percent of the total U.S. population is vulnerable to water scarcity issues, however, when infrastructure was accounted for, the number dropped to just 17 percent of the population. Residents in the top 225 metropolitan areas make up the bulk of the U.S. population.

Jawitz, a faculty member with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said they expected to find fewer areas vulnerable to water shortages than past studies had because of the different methodology, but some of their findings surprised them.

“We have people who live in the desert and they have water and it’s because of their infrastructure. If you live in a city that has a large of reservoir of water stored and there’s a drought, it doesn’t have the same effect on you as if you live in a city where there’s a drought and you don’t have a large reservoir,” he said.

They didn’t expect Atlanta – where legal battles over water rights with neighboring states initially prompted the researchers to tackle the survey – to fall near the middle among the 225 cities they studied for water access and vulnerability.

Another unusual finding: Miami, with its lush, tropical landscape, landing in the top 10 most vulnerable cities. Jawitz, a South Florida native, said although the Miami area generally enjoys an abundance of rain, it’s not stored anywhere. That means during periods of drought, the area becomes vulnerable.

Urban areas of population greater than 100,000 are ranked by fresh water availability based on liters per person per day.

“As population growth increases, we don’t have more resources to tap – we can’t just find another lake or another river to dam,” she said. “It’s going to come down to sharing, conservation and efficiency.”

For more detailed information go to:

Padowski, J. C., and J. W. Jawitz, 2012. Water availability and vulnerability of 225 large cities in the United States, Water Resources Research, 48, W12529, doi:10.1029/2012WR012335.